The Abolition of Slavery

So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. -Exodus 4:31

Nothing goes unnoticed by God. He sees all. He hears all. He knows all. The children of Israel were in slavery for 400 years! That’s a really long time! But the Lord intervened and sent a deliver. He used Moses and Aaron to bring them out of bondage into the promised land! 

The host of human trafficking and forced labor colloquially called “slavery” in the modern usage could be said to have lasted approximately 373 years. That number varies according to different usages of the word. But another deliverer was raised up. William Wilberforce, a British politician and philanthropist who from 1787 was prominent in the struggle to abolish the slave trade and then to abolish slavery itself in British overseas possessions. Wilberforce’s abolitionism was derived in part from evangelical Christianity, to which he was converted in 1784–85. His spiritual adviser became John Newton, a former slave trader who had repented and who had been the pastor at Wilberforce’s church when he was a child. John Newton wrote these words, “I remember two things: I am a great sinner and I have a great savior; and I don’t suppose an old slave trader needs to remember much more than that.”  He also penned the words to the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” 

Maybe you find yourself in some form of bondage or slavery today. Take heart, because God is at work to deliver! He is able to move king’s hearts. (Proverbs 21:1) He can change the course of history. Above all, He has sent to us a deliverer in Jesus Christ. One, who alone took the punishment for sin in death for us! “The Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God!” (1 Peter 3:18) Let us, “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)